Hack To Start Ep.134: Mike Schmidt, co-founder of Dovetale

Mike Schmidt is the co-founder of Dovetale.

Schmidt grew up outside Toronto and later attended Queen’s University, studying chemical engineering. While at Queen’s, he quickly developed an affinity for tech startups and was accepted into the Next 36 (an exclusive program in which he’s still involved to this day).

After graduating from both programs, Schmidt launched Listn from a dorm room at the university. As the CEO, Mike helped raise money, create the vision for the product, sign major partnerships, and helped the company get acquired by SFX Entertainment.

Following the acquisition, Mike’s career in tech continued to flourish. He led mobile and many other product initiatives at SFX Entertainment as part of a product called BeatPort.

After a few years there, a mentor introduced him to another startup called We Heart It in San Francisco where Mike was the head of growth, product, and engineering. Under Mike’s guidance, the app grew by five million users and reached as high as the #12 spot overall on the App Store in less than 12 months.

Throughout his career, influencer marketing was a common area of interest and fruitful tactic that Schmidt came back to time and time again. But it was often complicated to execute, expensive, and unpredictable.

Today, Mike is the co-founder of Dovetale, a startup that’s looking to change exactly that. Dovetale is backed by Expa, a startup studio created by ex-founders of companies like Uber, Foursquare, and more.

Mike joins us to share his story, how he turn a chemical engineering degree into a passion for tech startups from a dorm room at Queen’s University, what motivated him to launch Listn, what it was like being part of the Next36, what it was like raising funding, how Listn was acquired, how he’s trying to change the way influencer marketing happens for everyone, what it’s like being part of Expa, and much more!

Hack To Start is a weekly podcast focused on interesting people and the innovative ways they achieve success hosted by @FrancoVarriano and @TylerCopeland.